Nintendo Switch Is The Fastest-Selling Home Video Game System In US History

The Nintendo Switch has become the fastest-selling home video game system in U.S. history, moving nearly five million units in ten months, the company announced on Thursday.

"We believe that this is because the core proposition of Nintendo Switch, a home console that you can play anytime, anywhere, with anyone, is resonating with consumers," said Reggie Fils-Aimé, president and chief operating officer of Nintendo of America. "It's a whole new way to play video games, and a whole new way to think about what 'home console' means."

Nintendo released the $299 Switch -- a hybrid home/portable console that users can play on the go or plug into a dock to play on a TV -- on March 3, 2017, and it rapidly became the fastest-selling system in the company's history. Sales continued to be strong over the course of the year, even through significant hardware shortages that left many consumers struggling to get their hands on the product. And demand continued into the holiday season, helping drive total sales to date of more than 4.8 million units in the United States, according to Nintendo’s internal sales figures.

That’s the highest total for the first 10 months of any home video game system in U.S. history, according to the company, surpassing previous record holder the Nintendo Wii, which was released in 2006 and sold more than 4 million units during the same time frame.

"Consumers have embraced the core concept," said Fils-Aimé. "They love being able to easily slip Nintendo Switch from its dock, and to take their favorite games with them wherever they go. They're using it just as we hoped they would, from dedicated gamers who don't want to stop playing, to children possibly having their first experience with a Mario or Zelda game this holiday season."

The news comes after 2017 turned out to be an overall blockbuster year for the Japanese video game giant. In addition to the hugely popular Switch, Nintendo also released several smash hit games: One of the console's launch titles, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, was received with critical acclaim and is already regarded as one of the greatest video games of all time; on Oct. 27, the company released Super Mario Odyssey to similarly rave reviews. On Oct. 30 Nintendo reported better-than-expected revenues and profit for its third quarter, raised its financial outlook for the current quarter, and said it expected to ship almost 17 million Switch units by the time its financial year ends in March 2018.

Now Fils-Aimé says the company's priority is hitting those targets and making sure the console has plenty of great games to play throughout the product's lifetime. "A key tenet for the first ten months of Nintendo Switch was making sure we had a steady cadence of fantastic content," he said. "For calendar 2018 and beyond, our focus is the same. We need to make sure we've got a cadence of great content to motivate the consumer, and we're going to continue to announce the details of those games in due time, and on a rolling basis."

Nintendo has already announced new games coming from some of its most popular franchises, including Kirby, Bayonetta, and Yoshi, and says fans can also expect releases from major third-party publishers such as EA, Activision, Ubisoft, Take 2 and Bethesda, plus a growing catalog of content from indie developers.

"We have conversations ongoing with third-party developers, large and the small, they are very interested," said Fils-Aimé. "I expect that we will continue to see strong third-party support, not only from the big third-party developers, but from the independent community...the conversations have been ongoing, and the performance that we are delivering just reinforces their desire to create great content for the platform."

For all its success, the Switch was dogged by supply problems for most of 2017. For months following the March release, the console sold out within minutes every time a new shipment became available through retailers. Fils-Aimé said the shortages occurred when Switch sales exceeded even Nintendo's most optimistic projections, but were resolved in time for the holiday season.

"Everything played out quite well," he said. "You know, in order to sell through 4.8 million units here in the U.S., we had to have a robust supply chain, we needed to make sure the product was available for consumers in whatever outlet, or through whatever means they wanted to purchase...and while we maintained strong distribution and strong in-stocks through Christmas, right now we're in the process of re-supplying that chain, making sure that consumers who had a great experience at a friend's house or with family playing someone else's Nintendo Switch is now able to purchase one of their own."

Fils-Aimé said that the company expects a second, smaller spike in sales following the holiday season, when consumers who saw someone else's new Switch head out to buy their own console.

"Because of the content we have, because of the shared experiences we create, coming out of the holidays consumers look for their own to purchase for themselves," he said. "That's why we're so focused on re-supplying that supply chain, and making sure that consumers have the ability to buy one."

Nintendo isn't the only video game company with new hardware on the market. On Nov. 7 Microsoft released the $499 Xbox One X, the third and most high-end model in its Xbox One console line, which features upgraded hardware designed render games in ultra-high-definition 4K resolution. In November of 2016 Sony released their own 4K console, the $349 PlayStation 4 Pro. Holiday sales numbers aren't available yet for those consoles, but they almost certainly lagged behind Nintendo's new product.

"This is exactly the kind of momentum we hoped for," Fils-Aimé said. "Looking ahead, our goal is to continue the momentum, and to bring more and more fans into the Nintendo Switch environment."

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